Hypothetically speaking, if you had these powers on earth, you don't think you could blow up the entire planet. Or even a city. Like, you've got fire powers now, but they have certain limits (even if that limit might be just your imagination.)

You continue absent-mindedly running forward after the shadow wolf as you inwardly think about these questions of how powerful you are and whether or not it's because of the sun and all. The wolf slows down almost to a stop. All of a sudden, one of your steps pushes through the ground--and the sandy flatland around you ruptures and collapses as you fall into a giant sinkhole.

~~~

Your vision blurs as you open your eyes. You're lying sprawled out flat on your back, staring up at a hole that appears to be a couple of hundred feet up. It all happened so fast, you didn't have time to think about trying to float downward since you're not used to that even being an option. Instead, you're surprised you're okay at all after a drop from that height.

You stagger to your feet, picking your staff up off the floor where it lay beside you. The hole in the ceiling shows the bright sunny sky, but everything else down here is nearly pitch black, as the light barely reaches the rest of the room.

Actually, now that your eyes are becoming accustomed to the darkness, you can see a little further in all directions. To your horror, your realize that the walls are pulsating with the same shadowy blackness that the wolf was made of. You spin around, taking in your situation, instinctively spouting a tiny flame on the end of your staff and turning it into a candle. It led you right into a trap.

The walls reverberate sound from all around you. Grating, deep. "ssssSSSSSssswhat have we HEREeeesss?

You try to stay calm, but the more you look around, the more you notice you're surrounded on all sides by...whatever this is. "Um...a friend?" you say, hoping you sounded more confident than you think you did.

You hear a low chuckle. "what ussssSSSsssse would we have for friendsssss? you ssssseem more likeee...a fly..." You can barely see the edge of the wall amid the only light coming from the hole in the ceiling, but an extremely tall, slender, and long jointed leg begins to protrude from the puddle of shadow covering the wall. Another leg begins to emerge to the side, as the shadow wall begins to push forth a gigantic spider twice as large as you.

The blood drains from your face as a giant spider emerges from the shadowy wall. You lose concentration on your candle-staff and it goes out, at which point you immediately notice and relight it. "Fuck! FUCK!" you yell as you look straight up and concentrate as hard as possible on flying upward to the hole in the desert floor above. You're moving way, way too slow--no matter how hard you try, flying with any degree of aptitude just isn't possible for your body on this dive.

"oh little flyyyyYYYY, whatsssssSSSS got you so SSSsscared? why don't you sssSSSTAY HERE" comes the voice, and terror grips you as one of the monstrous spider legs launches itself forward and gashes the side of your stomach, slicing your robe open. You cry out in pain and immediately lose your concentration, falling the twenty or so feet you had managed to levitate thus far and collapsing onto the cold hard ground.

You reach for your wound and find not blood, but a rough concave dent/scratch, as if your body itself had been simply torn away. The skin around the wound floats away with a light red sparkle, almost as if you were made of ember dust. The shadow speaks again. "...wwwhat? why don't yyyou bleed?"

There's complete silence for a moment. And then, a scream that almost sounds as terror-filled as you currently feel:"WWWHY DON'T YOU BLEED???"

You hear a strong rushing noise as all at once, all of the shadows in the room make a beeline for you. The ones closest to you already on the floor begin to climb up your body, taking the form of tiny spiders to deepen your fear.

You're gripped by fear as all of the shadows form tiny spiders and begin crawling up your body, with the dark walls on all sides closing in. You scramble to your feet and your "fight or flight" response kicks itself out of the "get the fuck away" mode as you instinctually grip your staff tighter than ever.

You close your eyes and scream, a scream that starts as one of fear but quickly becomes one of pure rage. Everything about you bursts into flames--your hands, your robes, your hair.

"THISSSSS ISSSS NOT POSSSSIBLE"

You hear the shadows exclaim their disbelief, but you only concentrate on expanding your fire. Better to go out like a Phoenix than be torn to shreds by a monster of the Dusk in your very first encounter. Your scream continues as the flames encircling your body grow wider and hotter. Five seconds. Ten seconds. Fifteen seconds. At some point you gasp for breath and open your eyes as the flames begin to go out, your robes, body and hair returning to normal. The light provided by the remaining flickering flames illuminate the entire cavern, and there's not a trace of the darkness anywhere.

Exhausted beyond belief, you stumble, fall over backwards, and collapse to the ground.

~~~

At the edge of your consciousness, you hear a crackling noise. "Ugh," you murmur as you struggle to open your eyes, wondering why you feel so exhausted. You immediately see a hole in the ceiling with a dark orange sunsetted sky peeking through, and remember what you just went through. "Oh yeah," you grumble.

"Ah, you're awake," comes a voice a few feet away, and you immediately sit up with a start. You push down with your hands to help yourself up, and lose your balance as you find your right arm below the shoulder to be missing entirely, and the fingers on your left hand beginning to fade away. Your legs and torso don't appear to be in a whole lot better shape, and all of your wounds seem to be leaking the same ember-like magic particles as before, as it seems like your body is simply falling apart. It's a whole lot like how most of your dives have ended, except those felt like they were more on your terms. At least it doesn't hurt. ...You really hope that dying in this world doesn't have any consequences on your real body.

Your eyes begin to focus in the darkness, and you find yourself still in the cave. There's a rope descending from the hole in the ceiling, and a couple of feet away a log flickers and crackles in a mini-campfire. A woman in tan, sand-stained desert robes sits at the fire, watching you intently. "I didn't know if you'd actually wake up before you faded away entirely. I caught the tail end of the battle before you torched the Dusk into nothingness." There's a moment of silence as you're not sure how to reply. She continues, albeit more softly: "I'm Arianna. What's your name?"

"Alice," you say, immediately resorting to your middle name.

The woman smiles a little, but with a hint of sadness in her eyes. You're pretty sure she thinks you're dying (which...you probably are.) "Nice to meet you, Alice. I've never met anyone who wasn't flesh and bone before, let alone such a strong magic user. Thank you for taking care of the Dusk here." She glances back at the fire, probably trying not to draw attention to the fact that your left hand has now flickered apart into ember dust. "What...brings you to our area?" she finally asks.

>"Well, ah, ...things. Looking into what the Dusks are, I suppose. I must confess I don't know much about them, though it's comforting to know that there is some way to defeat them, at the very least. It's a shame that defeating one uses up all my energy, though. I was enjoying this body."